IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

As declarer, when you discover one opponent has six cards in a suit and the other only two, it is usually correct to finesse the player with length for a specific card.  However, sometimes you can avoid the finesse altogether.  Take a look.

Scoring:  Matchpoints (pairs)
 
Hand #13
Dlr  N
Vul E-W
S K876
H K97
D K82
C AJ8
S QJ1054
H
D 105
C 976432
    
S 3
H 1052
D AQJ9643
C Q10

S A92
H AQJ8643
D 7
C K5
West North
 East
 South

1C 3D 3H
   Pass     4H    Pass
    4NT
   Pass
     5H    Pass
     6H
All Pass
    



BIDDING:   South had an easy 3H call over East's preempt and after his partner raised, used Roman Keycard to discover North had two of the three outstanding keycards (4 aces + heart king).  South bid the slam hoping his partner had very little wasted values in diamonds.

PLAY:   West led the ten of diamonds followed by a second one ruffed by declarer.  It looked like South would have to take the club finesse in order to discard his spade loser, but first he decided to find out more about the hand.  After drawing trumps, he played the ace and king of spades and ruffed dummy's last diamond.  He now had a count on the opponents' hands.  East originally held one spade, three hearts, seven diamonds, and therefore only two clubs.  That made the odds 6-2 that West held the club queen.  But the finesse was unnecessary.  Declarer merely played the rest of his hearts and came down to the AJ8 of clubs in dummy and the spade 9 and K5 of clubs in his hand.  He next played the club king followed by the five.  When West followed to the second club, declarer knew the remaining card in West's hand was the spade queen so it was easy to play the club ace dropping the doubleton queen in East's hand. 

Of course if West held the club queen, he would be squeezed in the three-card ending.  The successful declarer will always look for ways to avoid taking a finesse.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.